The Constitutional Convention

Location

• Pennsylvania State House
  • Also known as Independence Hall

Surroundings

• Windows of Pennsylvania State House were mostly closed for privacy.
• It was held during the hot summer.
• The delegates were uncomfortable due to the hot summer.

When

• May 25th, 1787

People who attended

• Main Leaders
  • Alexander Hamilton of New York, James Madison of Virginia, and the oldest delegate at the age of 81 was Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania.
• Other Leaders
  • Roger Sherman, Gouverneur Morris, James Wilson, Elbridge Gerry, William Paterson, John Dickinson, Charles Pinckney, Edmund Randolph, and George Mason.
    • They were all wealthy, white males and over half of them were lawyers.
• President of convention
  • George Washington

    George Washington

People that did not attend

• Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock
  • John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were away in Europe serving as diplomats.

Delegates

• Only the delegates from Pennsylvania and Virginia made it to the convention on time.
• There were 29 delegates that arrived on May 25th, 1787.
• The rest continued to arrived throught the following weeks and months.
• They helped write their state constitution.
• Seven of the delegates had been state governors.
• Twenty-one delegates fought in the American Revolution.
• Eight delegates signed the Declaration of Independence.
• Thomas Jefferson said it was "an assembly of demi-gods".
• The state of Rhode Island did not send any delegates to the convention.
• There were 39 delegates that signed the constitution.

Links to other websites:

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/marryff.html

all of the delegates